You have a bouquet of flowers. All but two are roses, all but two are daisies, and all but two are tulips. How many flowers do you have?

3 flowers - 1 rose, 1 daisy and 1 tulip

The solution is quite simple, if you start with the “All but 2” first: Roses = All but 2 = Two flowers are not a rose; one tulip, one daisy Daisies = All but 2 = Two flowers are not a daisy; one rose, one tulip Tulips = All but 2 = Two flowers are not a tulip; one rose, one daisy Answer: One rose, one daisy, one tulip.

I would say, "Do you consider three flowers to be a bouquet?"

3- one of each

Considering that n is the total number of flowers we have: n - 2 = t (the number of tulips) n - 2 = d (the number of daisies) n - 2 = r ( the number of roses) The question is: are there only roses, daisies and tulips in the bouquet ? If yes we also have a fourth equation: r + d + t = n In this case we add the three equations above and we get 3n -6 = n (because n = r + d + t) 2n = 6 n = 3 If there are more than daisies, tulips and roses in the bouquet we have a system of three equations with four unknowns so the solution space is infinite.

Answer's 3, one of each.

Isaac and Rayz, you both failed logic If I have 3 things, say a tire iron, a hammer and a hedgehog, I can accurately say that all but two are tire irons If I had six (let's say two of each of the above) and said all but two are tire irons, this fails. I have six objects, two of which are tire irons - the math shows that four items are not tire irons The answer only works at 3

The entire bouquet is flowers. So the answer is they are all flowers. This is one of the oldest riddles in the book. The questioner distracts the answerer by providing frivolous information - the number of roses, tulips and so on. Most answerers will try to give a literal answer to what they perceive as a literal "how many" question. When in fact, the questioner is asking how many of whatever number of stems in the bouquet are flowers and all of them are.

The real question is what did the man do to his wife to have to bring her flowers to begin with?

Three. You have one of each kind.

3

3... Impossible is never a good answer...

Me: I have a Bouquet of flowers

@rumberobueno your math is great here, but it is NOT possible to have the 4th kind of flowers because it says: a) all but 2 are roses - in this case we can have at most 3 kind of flowers the same for the other cases, in conclusion we have only 3 kind of flowers and from your math we can say we have 1 of each kind.

Enough to make me sneeze.

Two flowers, neither of which are roses, daisies or tulips. Maybe geraniums. If the problem requires that all flowers are R, D or T, then one of each will work. Three.

The answer depends on if this is a math question or a science/biology question: A rose is classified as a plant and an herb, not a flower. Technically there are many possibilities.

2 flowers. The question specifically states that all but two are roses, daisies, and tulips. Since it uses the plural form of each flower, obviously "one rose, one daisy, one tulip" is not the answer they are looking for. However, "zero roses, zero daisies, and zero tulips" would fit both the mathematical and grammatical constraints. P..S. I'm guessing that the 2 flowers are lilies. I like lilies.

Do you really have a bouquet if you have just 2 or 3 flowers? Otherwise, you have either 2 or 3 flowers

As has been observed, there are two possible answers: either 3 flowers (one rose, one tulip, and one daisy) or 2 flowers (none of which is a rose, daisy or tulip). The statement that the "mystery flower" solution is unsolvable is not quite correct, however. It simply requires a graphical approach, which I will try to describe. Let's define 5 variables: n = total number of flowers r = number of roses t = number of tulips d = number of daisies x = number of flowers which are neither roses, tulips or daisies (mystery flowers) Now let's represent the information given in equation form: n - 2 = r n - 2 = t n - 2 = d And I'll add an equation which proceeds logically from my definition of x: n = r + t + d + x Substituting, I get: (r + t + d + x) - 2 = r (r + t + d + x) - 2 = d (r + t + d + x) - 2 = t Adding and simplifying, I get: 2(r + d + t) + 3x = 6 Hmm. Seems like a lot of variables, and not nearly enough equations.... But wait... r, t and d are all equal to the same thing...which means they must all be equal to each other. So we can rewrite that last equation as: 6r + 3x = 6...or: 2r = -x +2 This is simply the equation of a line. Unfortunately, it has infinitely many solutions. However, I am going to place some constraints on the solution set: r => 0 x => 0 r is an integer x is an integer. I don't think there is a way to represent these constraints algebraically. But if I graph the line 2r = -x +2, it becomes clear that there are only two nonnegative integer solutions - either r = 1 and x = 0 (which means, since we decided that r = t = d, that I have three flowers - one rose, one tulip and one daisy OR r = 0 and x = 2 (which means, since we decided that r = t = d, that I have 2 flowers - zero roses, zero tulips, and zero daisies, plus two mystery flowers).

All three types ( r, d, & t)

3 flowers - 1 daisy, 1 tulip, 1 rose.

You have enough flowers to make a beautiful bouquet. It is not about the amount of flowers in the bouquet it is how they are strategically placed together to create a beautiful end result. The colors and textures in the bouquet work together similarly to the way that people in an organization need to work together.

6 flowers

3 Flowers.

3. One of each kind.

There is a definate mathematical approach to this question as was stated earlier but you can not add excess flowers. Look at it simplified: If R=roses, T=tulips, D=daisies and X = # in bouquet; where R, T, D, and X are whole numbers greater than 0 and assuming that there are said flowers in the bouquet. then R+2=X, T+2=X, D+2=X then R+2=T+2=D+2 therefore R=T=D, R+T+D=X, R+T=2; T+D=2, D+R=2 T=2-R and D=2-R therfore R must be less than 2 but greater than 0, then R=1 therefore T=1 and D=1 R+T+D=X X=3, If there are none of said flowers in bouquet then total number is 2. There is no other answer available with the question worded this way.

It's like the old riddle my witty uncle used to aske me every time we passed a graveyard. " How many dead people are in there?" Answer: "All of them" I agree with Brian. This is a distraction for the one questioned. When we are a little anxious we tend to over think things. Just my opinion

I agree that the correct answer is all of them are flowers. So many firms using questions like this have little to no clue as to why they are asking these and do little to elicit the kind of information about the candidate's fit with the job that an interview process should be gaining. If the job requires highly analytical skills than get some proven tests rather than interviewers putting interviewees off guard with silly questions that are not relevant to the job at hand. If you want to work for Brain Teasers, that would be a good question to pose along with many others. Why people don't want candidates to be at ease in a job interview astounds me as that is when you will get the best information out of them astounds me.

Let n be the total number of flowers. When the problem says that all but two of the flowers are of one kind, it means there are n−2 flowers of that kind. Therefore, n−2 of them are roses, n−2 of them are tulips and n−2 of them are daisies. Assuming that this exhausts the list of flowers, we can write n−2+n−2+n−2=n which gives n=3

I have a bouquet of flowers. It was not quanitfied and I was not asked to quantify.

A Bouquet is what I have

a bouquet is 12, if 2 are roses, 2 are tulips, and 2 are daisies, then you have 6 flowers. So your bouquet has 6 flowers, 2 tulips, 2 roses, and 2 daisies.

3, but I hate wording that is designed to mislead. I think that reflects poorly on the company.

All!

Nice riddle, but the way it is written there is no solution. If you have a rose, a daisy, and a tulip then all but two is a rose (not roses), all but two is a daisy (not daisies), and all but two is a tulip (not tulips). But if it was written this way the answer is obvious.

It's not clever to say "All of them." It's asinine. I get that there's math, but if you just take the actual question, "How many flowers do you have?" and you respond with "All of them" it shows a distinct inability to answer a question logically. Do you really have ALL of the flowers? Or are you simply confused as to the definition of the word "all"?

two buttercups :)

I would go with luke.....

Don't forget the trivial solution (none).

unknown. Could be 3, could be 6, 9, 12, any multiple of 3

The question is contradictory - the question says ALL of your flowers are Roses except two, and goes on to say ALL of your flowers are Daises except two. All of your flowers cannot be both Roses and Daises and Tulips.

We know there's two of each considering that the three types are not overlapping but we don't really know the total. The answer is "At least 6".